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Market Strategy for CampaignerCRM

BACKGROUND – CRM

Broadly, CRM software can be split into several sectors including sales, marketing, customer service and contact centers (Schaeffer, 2013). Gartner (2012) splits the market into three categories, namely customer service and support, marketing automation and sales. These sectors will be examined in more detail later.

Ultimately, CRM is designed to strengthen relationships with the customer by learning as much about them and their habits, as is possible, with the aim of leveraging these relationships into increased sales, reduced costs and greater organisational profitability.

Salesforce.com’s rate of growth has been impressive, seeing it outpace Oracle in 2011 and likely to displace SAP from the number one position in 2013. Tatum (2013) notes that of the ‘Big Four’, salesforce.com is the only provider to be exclusively SaaS (software as a service) based, undoubtedly a key factor in its rapid growth, due to the increasing preference for cloud or mobile CRM applications as opposed to on-premise services.

Outside of the major players, a growing number of vendors are servicing small and medium-sized businesses with a range of CRM products available. Tatum (2013) notes that these companies have managed to differentiate themselves via a combination of “functionality, focus on social integration, mobile access and industry-specific features”. While the field of smaller vendors is attracting a steady stream of new entrants, some vendors such as Sugar and Sage have been singled out by observers for their ease of use and popularity amongst subscribers. Tatum (2013) also notes that Highrise and Zoho are gaining in popularity – the former due to its cost effectiveness and ease of use, the latter for its low cost and free services (for up to three users). Many commentators note that a disadvantage of the major competitors, in spite of their rich array of features, is that they are complicated to use and very expensive to set up. This has created significant opportunities for smaller vendors.

Social CRM is another major trend, and with consumers increasingly using social media in their everyday life, it seems likely that this aspect of CRM will only become progressively more important over time. Linking in with this is the concept of crowdsourcing, or using a company’s customers to help develop new products or ideas. The concept can also be applied to helping improve a business or troubleshoot problem areas and is closely linked with social media.

Schaeffer (2012) also notes the trend towards mobility, which in itself is linked to the growing use of tablets as the principal tool for sales staff. It is predicted that 30% of businesses will issue their employees with tablet computers by 2014 (Sumastre, 2012), which provides a growing need for mobile CRM solutions, along with cloud services or applications.

The rationale for offering CRM software for free varies from one vendor or developer to another. For some developers, it may be an opportunity to establish themselves in a competitive marketplace – a means of establishing a brand name and reputation online. Once users are familiar with a certain CRM system, they may also be less likely to switch to another software program. While this isn’t necessarily advantageous during the free phase, if the company’s needs grow, or if the number of users increases significantly, they may find it easier to upgrade to a paid service with a provider with whom they are already accustomed. Another obvious revenue stream for free CRM providers is advertising. Just as Google places ads on its search pages, so too could CRM vendors attract advertising to their site, if their user numbers were suitably high, as this could be an attractive market for advertisers. In his blog, MacLeod (2008) suggests that companies offering free software rationalise this decision by having customers pay for peripherals or related services, such as add-ons, service contracts and hardware, to go with the software. He goes on to suggest that ultimately, some sort of paid service (in the way of a contract with the vendor) at least ensures an appropriate level of support if (and typically when) something goes wrong.

While free CRM software does not necessarily have all the features of software offered by the big four companies (and indeed, some criticism is levied at the major players for having excessive or unnecessary features, which can sometimes hinder usability and inflate costs), many useful features are still offered, at no cost, by several vendors. Some of the features available for free are listed next.

SugarCRM Community Edition: The popularity of SugarCRM has seen it become the fastest growing CRM company, globally. With a range of paid options, Sugar also offers a Community Edition, which is free to users. All products offer a broad range of features, which are comparable with those of the major players. Free users taking advantage of the Community Edition can access accounts and contracts; activity and opportunity tracking; document library; a wide range of marketing functions; customer support; some social CRM features; customization features; data management and back-up; and some cloud computing. Broadly speaking, features that are missing, in comparison to its paid versions, include reporting, security options and mobile services.

Insightly: A forever free plan, for up to three users, Insightly is a mobile CRM app used by over 250,000 customers. Users are able to track leads, proposals, opportunities and projects; assign tasks, attach files, tag important items and get email reminders; access Insightly via Google Universal Navigation; view a full history of customer interaction; drag and drop file sharing with full versioning control; access a central, shared contact list; have a two-way contact sync with Google; add custom fields; and do a real time search of everything

4. Social CRM

5. Mobile CRM

10. Cloud Computing

In attempting to evaluate each of the five free CRM ‘vendors’ on these attributes, it’s possible to represent the companies in a table with a score out of four for each feature.

• • Elucidate with specific promotional and advertising campaigns using social media to capture brand awareness for the Free CRM product.

Concerns with freeCRM: companies can go under, as they don’t have the means to continue. If it’s an SaaS company, then the whole application will disappear and you will lose everything. Also, companies may stop giving away their services for free or change their business model dramatically. It can be more reliable to go for a paid service, where you have a contract, and you know exactly what you will get. Free service comapnies have no incentive to provide free support to enhance the product further, or to upgrade it. Paid support to fix problems may be more expensive than the original software.

Beattie, A. (2011). Cloud Computing: Why the Buzz? November 30, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.techopedia.com/2/27830/trends/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-why-the-buzz

Columbus, L. (2012). Roundup of CRM Forecasts and Market Estimates, 2012, Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2012/12/04/roundup-of-crm-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2012/

Tatum, C. (2013). The 2013 CRM Vendor Landscape. Retrieved 24 April, 2013 from http://www.crmswitch.com/crm-industry/crm-vendor-landscape-2013/

Verrill, A. (2013). History of CRM Software, Software Advice. Retrieved 26 April, 2013 from http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/crm/history-of-crm-software-011/